Update on U.S. v. State of California Lawsuit

Press releaseJune 29, 2018

Last Wednesday, our coalition attended a federal court hearing in Sacramento to protect the California Values Act. As you may remember from our last statement, the federal government is seeking to block the Values Act, a high policy priority the Partnership worked to pass in 2017. If the Federal administration wins this case, then law enforcement would be able to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement deport California residents, which undermines immigrant victims’ safety.

The Partnership and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) responded to the Administration’s lawsuit by retaining the ACLU to file a motion for us to intercede in defending California’s law. The Judge ruled against our motion to intercede, but accepted an amicus brief we submitted outlining our arguments in defense of the Values Act.

At last week’s hearing, we stood alongside our ACLU attorneys and partners from the ICE Out of California Coalition where we were pleased to hear Judge Mendez go out of his way to cite from our amicus brief multiple times. We will keep you updated as this case proceeds.